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Jim The Third's Log

I hope everyone is doing well. This will be my first post on the site and the first within this log. I plan to update this on a regular basis with my training. Adding video and other various things when appropriate.

Here is a clip from my training today.

Today I had a lighter day for my stuff. I wanted to do some shoulder work and hit some other areas that I'm weak in. With the program that I'm doing, I'm trying to be aggressive on the off days with the movements that will work on my weaknesses.

I'll keep this post brief since I need to go eat some dinner. I look forward to talking to you all tomorrow.

Why I want to work on overhead strength and accessory days | VLog | Talk

In this video, I talk about my reasoning for working on overhead work as well as my focuses for my accessory type days.

Essentially, I want to build my strength overhead, so I can be more stable when I am catching heavy snatches and jerks. Because I don't have a lot of shoulder strength, I need to improve in this area, which will be my target on accessory days. Stability and strength improvements in my shoulders will be huge for me improving in both jerks and snatches.

When I go to the gym today, I have a lot of squat work as well as some muscle snatches. This day will serve as a lighter day as far as work for my shoulders, but a more taxing day for my quads. I will be working lighter with front squats, but heavier with back squats. I have put general weight x sets x reps for what I want to do, but I will play by feel to see if I can be a bit more aggressive or less aggressive. I'm looking to move most reps and most sets quickly and limit grinding to maybe the last couple back squats at my top sets. I will also be doing some muscle snatches, which is a lift I struggle at with the form, so practicing that will be a good way for me to get some work in on that movement as well as the benefits from doing that movement to strength in general. Should be a good day of work.

385 lbs | 175 kgs Squat Single

Here is a clip from my workout today.

I would like my upper back to stay up a bit more, but I'm generally happy with how this rep went.

The goal with today's workout was to hit my quads harder with more squat focused work. I did some front squats and muscle snatches before this. Some quad work, abs, and some biceps after my squat work. Tomorrow I have a lighter day. I will also be posting my workout clips from 8-5-17 tomorrow in full. The dips I recently posted were from that workout. The full clips from today will be up on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I didn't feel amazing with this workout, but I felt decent and everything moved better than I felt, so I'm happy with how everything went overall. I will have a light day tomorrow with more of a mechanic focus.

I am 23 years old, soon to be 24 later this month. I currently weigh ~210 lbs/95 kgs which varies by a couple of lbs depending on the time of day. I'm working on gaining weight to fill out to 105 kgs, so I'm not planning on cutting. I'm 5'11 as well.

I can tell you my numbers for other various lifts if you want, just let me know.

Here is the general program I'm doing now. It may change since this is the first week I'm running it. The exercises are in order of what I do. That's part of doing it, is figuring out what order works best, but generally, weightlifting movements are completed first. Percentages are based of 1 rep max.

Day 1

-Good morning - 135 lbs - 1x20
-Overhead squat - 50%,60%,70% - 2x2 | 80%-2x1, 90%+ Work heavy singles (This may change week to week) Right now I want to push this movement to reach a plateaued. I PR'd pretty easily by 10 lbs this week.
-Snatch pulls - 50%,60%,70% - 2x3 | 80% + heavy single
-Clean pulls - 50%,60%,70% - 1x3, | 80% + heavy single
-Barbell rows - varying weights
-Front Squat pause + jerk - 1+1 up to 75% (Went by feel with this, may manipulate next week. I also did some squat jerks with lighter weights, which I plan to push a bit as I can build up the ability with the movement)
(Link to this workout video:
)

Day 5
-Daily snatch max - until form breaks down
-Daily max clean/jerk - until form breaks down (May adjust this week to week to be a heavy clean or heavy jerk attempt)
-Bench Press - Heavy single - 80% of that single - 3x5
-Deadlift - Heavy single - 80% of that single - 3x3
(I have not completed this workout, so I have to see how it goes. I may have to restructure. Essentially, I want to do a lot of heavy work and do my bench work/deadlift work after these attempts to maximize recovery before I go heavy with the weightlifting movements again.)

Day 6
-Snatch, clean/jerk form work light (What I do and how much I do depends on how I feel after Day 5. I imagine I'll be pretty sore, so these may be really light. This may vary week to week as well)
-Weighted pull-ups
-Weight dips
-Weight push-ups

Ab work is done with each workout with varying intensity.

Principles
-Repeat week if new max achieved (On Day 5) with same percentages
-If new max is not achieved, increase percentages by 2.5% for each lift affected
-4 week and then re-assess program and adjust days as needed

It's a pretty aggressive programming, but I'm still getting "newbie" gains from getting stronger and also form improvements, so I want to push myself.

Some things will be adjusted week to week as I need to, but I will generally keep the same structure for 4 weeks.

Shoulder work and some sled pushes | VLog | 8-5-17

In this workout, I did some shoulder work, dips, a little bit of clean practice, some sled pushes, and weighted carries. The sled pushes definitely took a lot out of me, but we great quad work. Kenny does them a lot more than I do, so I may jump in when he does them every once in awhile.

I had a solid workout today. I worked to 100 lbs with snatches and 135 lbs with clean/jerks. Both are about 50% of my max. I did a lot mobility work after I did my light stuff. I will be doing heavy singles tomorrow with the snatch and clean/jerk as well as some benching and some deadlifting.

Heavy squat single and muscle snatch PR | 8-6-17

I was able to get a PR with muscle snatches and do a heavy single with squats. I'm planning on having one workout be like this where it is focused a lot of squats during the week. It may vary whether I focus on Back or Front squats, but I would like to continue to work to have a day like this where I'm able to do some work at a higher percentage. I would like to be able to stay more upright when I'm hittin maximal weights, but I think I'm destined to pitch over a bit when I start getting to the really high percentages.

This workout videos with all of my workout clips will be a day or two after the workout is completed, so if something looks redundant to something I talked about before, just check the date.

I will be going to the gym in a little bit to do some heavy singles with some snatch and clean/jerk. Hopefully that goes well. Not really sure what I'll be able to do, but hopefully, I'm to hit a PR on one or both of the lifts.

200 lbs / 91 kgs Snatch PR

I failed 210 lbs two times after this. I'm very happy with how this rep went. I had a lot of issues catching the weight the made me walk forward for several steps when I started to get heavy. When I failed 210 lbs, I couldn't stabilize it once I got it overhead, which shows me that I need to get my shoulder stronger. I failed 245 lbs/111 kgs on the clean and jerk the first time, but was able to get it the second time. More accurately described as a power clean and jerk, since my clean is much higher than my jerk. Same issue, I need to continue to build my shoulders up to be able to stabilize weight above my head. I'm very happy with how this day went. I was also able to do a heavy single at 505 lbs with a deadlifts and just missed a PR of bench of 330 lbs. So, I'm very happy with how this week went. With that being said, I will be keeping the snatch work percentages the same and will be increase the clean and jerk work percentages throughout the week by 2.5%. When I go in today, I will doing weighted dips, weighted pull-ups, weighted push ups, and ab work. I may also add in some form work with snatches and clean/jerks.

I had a really good workout today. My goal was to hit some weight pull-ups and some weight dips which I did. I used 25 lbs for my pull-up sets, and I worked up to 105 lbs for a set of 3 reps for dips. After that work, I did some sled pushes, and ended with pause squats where I sent up to 315 lbs/143 kgs for a single. Didn't have any coffee beforehand, so doing all of this without any caffeine before is a good feeling.